


Familial Bonds

by Yagura



Series: Selkie!verse [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Cooking Lessons, Domestic, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 04:12:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13849833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yagura/pseuds/Yagura
Summary: On his way home Iruka spots Naruto sitting forlornly on a swing. There's nothing in him that can just walk past without doing anything.





	Familial Bonds

**Author's Note:**

> Based on dahtwitchi's [gorgeous art](https://dahtwitchi.tumblr.com/post/171408772058/fanart-of-fanfiction-link-i-blame-hakuboo-so)!
> 
> Written for NarutoCouplesWeek2018, Day 6: Family // Favorite Platonic relationship.

Iruka is on his way home from a brief shift at the mission desk when he spots Naruto, still at the Academy, sitting on the swings and staring forlornly into space. The mere sight of it makes his heart clench. Even if he didn't understand intimately Naruto's loneliness as an orphan, even if he weren't fonder of Naruto than he ought to be for a strictly teacher-student relationship, he wouldn't have been able to walk past.

"Naruto!" he calls out.

Immediately Naruto perks up. The bright smile that overtakes his face changes his entire body language; from desolate to cheerful, energetic. It happens so fast Iruka can't help but wonder if it's genuine. "Iruka-sensei! What are you doing here?"

"Well, as a teacher I spend the night at the school-" Iruka starts, then bursts out laughing at Naruto's flabbergasted expression. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I was meaning to go to Ichiraku's, do you want to come with me?"

Of course Naruto does. He is, in fact, ecstatic. "Yes, yes, yes!! Let's go Iruka-sensei, let's go!"

Iruka laughs and makes no effort to quicken his steps even as Naruto speeds down the street. Like a boomerang, Naruto bounds back once he reaches the street corner, then proceeds to dance a circle around Iruka, singing a made-up song about Ichiraku ramen. The whole way there he doesn't take one normal step, just skips and bounces and runs back and forth. It's as amusing as it's mystifying; where does he get that energy from?

"Ichiraku's!" Naruto cheers when they reach the street the restaurant is situated on. Immediately he speeds off.

Only to freeze in front of the building. Iruka blinks, but a moment later he realizes why: the restaurant is closed. There's a note pinned to the front claiming sickness and apologizing for any inconvenience.

"Oh," Iruka makes, honestly disappointed. Sure, Ichiraku's hadn't been on his agenda until he spotted Naruto, but, well. Naruto is not the only one who loves ramen. Especially cooked by Teuchi-san; that man might very well be a wizard, Iruka's never had ramen half as delicious as his anywhere else.

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto whispers. He looks like the world is coming to an end, Iruka has to choke back laughter at his devastated expression. "What do we do now?"

Iruka pretends to think. "Well. I guess our only recourse now is to go home and cook ramen ourselves. What do you say?"

That makes Naruto perk up. "Okay, we can do that, Iruka-sensei! I still have lots of cup ramen at home!"

"Or we could go to my place and make real ramen," Iruka suggests smoothly, putting both hands on Naruto's shoulders to turn him around so they can head towards Iruka's apartment. Naruto's been there before, but only a handful of times – Iruka _is_ still his teacher and has to avoid any suspicion of inappropriateness or favoritism. Sometimes Iruka wants nothing more than to…

It's not right. Naruto is an orphan, lives entirely on his own, and he's clearly at a disadvantage for it. There's nobody to help him with homework, to get him to study, to teach him things. Once Iruka got his head out of his ass, he started trying to pick up the slack, but there is only so much he can do. Far too used to being independent, Naruto doesn't have much discipline, and if Iruka pushes him too far Naruto might very well realize that really, he doesn't have to listen to him at all outside the classroom.

So Iruka sticks to being a strict teacher at school, and outside of school he tries to provide more of a big brother role for Naruto. He has no clue if it's doing any good at all, but Naruto seems to enjoy spending time with him, and that's already more than enough reason to keep going.

"Cup ramen is real ramen," Naruto states doubtfully.

"In some way, yes, I suppose that's true," Iruka is forced to admit. "But there is a big difference between cup ramen and Ichiraku ramen, right?"

Brows furrowed, Naruto nods. "Right." Suddenly, his face brightens. "Can you make Ichiraku ramen at home, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka has to laugh. "I'm afraid not, I'm not a professional ramen chef. Good ramen isn't as easy to make as Teuchi-san and Ayame-san make it look. But I manage passably well, I think." At Naruto's scrunched up expression, he grins and reaches out to ruffle Naruto's hair. "You'll see."

Naruto has eaten food at Iruka's home before, but this is the first time he's helping with the cooking. Very quickly, Iruka realizes that it might very well be the first time Naruto actually _cooks_ , because he seems to have no clue what to do with the vegetables, and his grip on the kitchen knife is clumsy.

That's disconcerting, but in hindsight, not surprising. Who would have taught him?

Well, now Iruka will. He shows Naruto how to hold the knife, demonstrates how to cut the spring onions and carrots and everything else, explains how to hold the vegetables and why that way, and details what Naruto has to pay attention to when cutting vegetables.

"If you cut them unevenly big, then they'll cook unevenly, which means at the end you have some bits that are overcooked and soggy and other bits that are still raw," he states. "So try to make as evenly sized bits as possible, alright?"

"Alright." With all the seriousness of a general about to charge into a battle in which he's hopelessly outnumbered, Naruto starts to cut the vegetables, the tip of his tongue trapped between his teeth in concentration.

It's completely adorable and Iruka has to duck away to hide his reaction. How anyone could know Naruto and still hate him is a complete mystery to him. Sure, Naruto can be a brat. He's frequently rude and pointedly loud, but just as often he's silent, withdrawn, clearly suffering. More than once Iruka has asked the Sandaime if Naruto could live with him, only to be denied. The explanations the Hokage offered did make sense, but all logic and reasoning seems less than relevant when Iruka looks at Naruto.

But it's no use. The Sandaime discouraged Iruka from officially petitioning for guardianship because it might jeopardize his position as Naruto's teacher, and as much as Iruka hates it, he's had to make his peace with it. The status quo is better than being formally removed from Naruto's life completely, and they'll both just have to live with that.

"Like this, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asks. He's trying for uncaring, but his brows are furrowed anxiously as he waits for Iruka's judgment.

"Perfect," Iruka proclaims. It's not entirely true, but clearly Naruto put a lot of effort into it, and that's what counts. "Good job, Naruto." He reaches out to ruffle Naruto's hair. "Alright, I'm going to sear the meat, and the eggs will be boiled in a minute, too. I've got the broth boiling here, I'll show you in which order to put everything in, alright?"

Naruto watches with a lot of concentration as Iruka sears the beef and follows Iruka's instructions to the letter. Honestly, Iruka wishes he'd show this kind of focus for schoolwork, but he doesn't say so.

After they've eaten, Naruto surprisingly volunteers to do the dishes. There's no way Iruka is going to let him do them all by himself, though. It clearly makes Naruto a little unhappy, but no way is Iruka going to have a guest do the dishes all on his own, no matter how much he wants to encourage Naruto's show of manners.

Except, it might not be manners after all. After they've done the dishes Naruto starts fidgeting, casting nervous glances out the window. "I, uhm. I guess I should go home."

 _Fuck this_ , Iruka thinks very abruptly. "Actually, I wanted to discuss the homework from Monday with you, Naruto, if you can stay a while longer?"

"Sure!" Naruto agrees quickly and far too brightly, considering that homework is involved. It confirms all of Iruka's suspicions and makes a lump clench at the pit of his chest. It's made up of anger and sadness and helplessness, and Iruka would bet that Naruto is very familiar with that mix of emotions.

He swallows it down. Getting angry won't help anyone and in fact will only make things harder for Naruto.

So he pulls out Naruto's essay about how he'd respond to the mission scenario that posed their homework and works through it together with Naruto. It's not often that Naruto does the homework, and even rarer that he actually puts in effort, but for this piece of homework he did. He listens carefully to Iruka's explanations and suggestions, expression so earnest Iruka suggests to him, "I have some books about how to handle hostage scenarios, if you want you can borrow some." He waves over to his bookshelf and isn't surprised when Naruto jumps up immediately and bounces over to it. For Naruto, they'd been sitting still for an extraordinary length of time.

Not for Iruka, of course. He watches Naruto for a moment, then decides he might as well get a start on some grading and pulls some papers from the neverending stack.

Honestly, he kind of forgets about Naruto's presence until Naruto asks, "Iruka-sensei? Why do you have sooo many stones, like, everywhere?"

Iruka twitches. "Ah. Uhm." He looks up to find Naruto peering closely at some stones arranged around his bonsai. "Please don't touch them, Naruto. They, uh, were a gift." In some manner of speaking. At least Iruka is pretty sure that's what they are? Honestly, even after over a year he still can't quite make heads or tails of the whole thing. He knows that they're from Kakashi, and he also knows that Kakashi is a lot more awkward and shy than he seems at first glance – that's obvious. And he knows that he regularly comes home to new pebbles sat on his windowsill, sometimes only one, but there have been as many as up to five of them at once. They're clearly from all over the continent, and, well. Obviously Iruka can't be sure, but the most logical explanation he can think of is that Kakashi is trying to woo him. In an awkward, slightly odd, glacier-paced kind of way.

It's pretty flattering, and also strangely sweet. Normally Iruka isn't the most patient sort of person and more than once he's been tempted to step up and take command of the whole situation, to actually _do_ something about it, but he's never done it. Honestly, he doesn't think he ever will. Kakashi is skittish and Iruka likes him enough that he doesn't want to chase him away. So if Kakashi needs to go slow, then Iruka is willing to wait until he's ready.

"Huh," Naruto makes. "Weird." He moves on to poke at some books.


End file.
